FORUM: Mobile-home rent decontrol to injure seniors

More than 4,000 Oceanside residents are facing a disastrous
situation created by the current City Council ---- those who live
in rent-controlled mobilehomes.

Many live on fixed incomes. While modest, this income continues
during poor economic times ---- meaning they still shop and spend
their money here in Oceanside.

A very select group of 16 people owns these mobilehome parks.
All (except two) don't live in Oceanside, so none of their income
gets spent here ---- oh, except for City Council political
contributions.

In the 1960s and 1970s, it was a good investment to buy cheap
land on the outskirts of town and build a mobile-home park. Little
capital was needed; and once it was filled with mobile homes, the
park was worth many times the development costs. It was a good deal
for both the owner and the residents.

Then the situation changed; no new parks were being built
because all the cheap, empty land was gone, creating a shortage of
new spaces for mobile homes in Oceanside. This threatened to upset
the fair market pricing of space rents.

It’s virtually impossible to move a mobile home after it's on a
permanent site, so this created a captive market of mobile-home
owners with a great imbalance in the bargaining position between
the park owners and home owners ---- in favor of the park
owners.

In response to this, Oceanside created 16B, the rent control
ordinance. This ordinance addresses this problem, and it has done
so for about 30 years now.

Rent control is completely different for mobile homes than for
apartments. Apartment rental is a free market: Tenants can simply
move since they have nothing invested, unlike mobile-home owners,
as their home can represent their total assets.

This ordinance has been tested repeatedly in court and every
time has been judged to be fair and equitable to all parties, both
tenants and park owners. Space rents under this ordinance have been
judged to keep up with inflation with annual increases. It was
written to guarantee the owners a "just and reasonable return,"
which is presently slightly over 13 percent. This is a great return
considering the low risk involved. In fact, this amount of return
allows the park owners to effectively double their investment every
8 years.

Now three members of the city council have tentatively approved
vacancy decontrol, so when a unit changes hands the rent can be
raised to whatever the park owner says. As a result, the sale price
of any mobile home will be seriously reduced and the mobile-home
owner's investment destroyed. This means any financial advantage to
park owners will be purchased on the backs of the mobile-home
owners ---- disproving the lie that this will not affect current
mobile-home owners.

Make no mistake: This change will effectively end rent control
in Oceanside, which means the city will also lose the almost
$300,000 annual income paid by park residents and park owners to
support rent control.

It makes one wonder who is being represented by these three
councilmen: Oceanside residents or their out-of-town
contributors?